"Why Would He Lie?": Kapil Sibal on Twitter Ex-CEO's Farm Protest Claim

Former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Tuesday supported the claim of former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey that there was 'pressure' from India to block accounts covering the farmers' protests and said there is no reason for Jack Dorsey to lie.

In an interview with the YouTube channel 'Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar', on Monday, Jack Dorsey who stepped down from Twitter's board last year, alleged that the Indian government had put pressure on Twitter and said that it will shut down the company in India and raid the houses of its employees.

"First of all, I would like to know, why would Jack Dorsey make such a statement. Rajeev Chandrasekhar says that this is a lie. Why would he tell a lie? There is no reason for Jack Dorsey to tell a lie that they threatened Twitter when the protests were going on, that they would shut their offices and raid the then Twitter employees," Kapil Sibal said.

"There is every reason for others to tell a lie because they can't accept this," he said.

Rakesh Tikait was leading protests against three government farm policies in 2020-2021 that have since been overturned.

Jack Dorsey in the interview said that there were requests around farmers' protests to shut Twitter in the country.

".....India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers' protests, around particular journalists who were critical of the government and it manifested in ways such as we will shut Twitter down in India, India is a big marketplace for us. We would raid the homes of your employees, which they did and we will shut down your offices if you don't follow suit and this is India, a democratic country, " Jack Dorsey is heard saying in the interview on the YouTube channel," he said.

In November 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repeal of the three Central farm laws.

In his address to the nation, PM Modi said then, "Today I want to tell everyone that we have decided to repeal all three farm laws.

Farmers staged a protest in large numbers against the government's three farm laws since the Centre passed the laws in 2020.

The three farm laws are -- The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act provides for setting up a mechanism allowing the farmers to sell their farm produce outside the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs). Any licence-holder trader can buy the produce from the farmers at mutually agreed prices. This trade of farm produces will be free of mandi tax imposed by the state governments.

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act allows farmers to do contract farming and market their produces freely.

The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act is an amendment to the existing Essential Commodities Act.

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